Supporters of the Socialist Workers campaign of James Harris for president and Margaret Trowe for vice president have scored a real victory in their drive to put the socialist ticket on the ballot in 13 states and the District of Columbia. All that remains is collecting 500 signatures in Vermont!

Over the past two weeks the campaign was certified for the ballot in Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, New York, and Utah, thanks to the help of numerous workers in struggle.

Achieving ballot status strengthens and broadens the reach of the campaign, enabling many more to learn about a fighting, working-class alternative to the Democratic, Republican, Reform, and Green parties. Getting Harris and Trowe on the ballot means the twin parties of the super wealthy ruling minority are not left unchallenged in the electoral arena.

Harris and Trowe are the only working-class candidates who are mounting a nationwide campaign, seeking to get on the ballot in every state possible. At each tour stop they are receiving a serious hearing for their revolutionary perspectives--from workers on strike, farmers defending their land, unionists rallying to defend their rights, and youth protesting the brutalities and injustices of capitalism.

To get on the ballot, the socialist campaigners have to overcome a host of undemocratic restrictions. In many states, requirements such as collecting tens of thousands of signatures are designed to keep working-class parties off the ballot so the two-party capitalist system remains unchallenged.

For a revolutionary workers party, gaining ballot status is an important part of defending its ability to operate openly and pursue as many ways as possible to organize, educate, and get into the midst of struggles and resistance. The capitalist state will always, especially in times of social crisis and labor upsurge, seek ways to limit the ability of workers organizations to function, declaring them "illegal" and beyond constitutional protections under the Bill of Rights.

An election campaign is one of the few opportunities a workers party has to defend its political space and democratic rights by entering an arena of capitalist politics. Elections are one of the main ways the employers' class portrays its rule as "democratic," making it harder for them to justify going after organizations that run candidates.

A byproduct of putting in hundreds of hours to meet the undemocratic requirements and raise substantial funds to make it all possible is reaching thousands of people with a campaign flyer, the Militant, or a Pathfinder book. Many are introduced to a socialist candidate or decide to come to a picket line, a demonstration, or a Militant Labor Forum.

The socialist campaign supporters battling for ballot status are a crucial part of presenting a small but important example of how working people can chart a course of independent political action as part of their deepening resistance, and, down the road, revolutionary mobilizations in a fight to establish a government of workers and farmers.

The Gore/Lieberman and Bush/Cheney tickets offer nothing but a continued assault on working people at home and abroad. Both boast of their support for the U.S.-led assault on the Iraqi people, which continues to this day; both back continued executions, jailings, and assaults on democratic rights; both tout the "American miracle" economy that is kept going on the backs of working people; both press the assault against Social Security and other social conquests that were won through the struggles of workers and farmers.

Ralph Nader and the Green Party offer the dangerous illusion that capitalism can be reformed and seek to divert working people into the trap of economic American nationalism. The fact that the logic of the world economic crisis propels U.S. imperialism to drive toward fascism and war can be seen in the capturing of the Reform Party by ultrarightist Patrick Buchanan.

Throughout the United States supporters of the socialist campaign are deeply involved in the resistance of working people to this assault, resistance that points in a different direction from the dog-eat-dog world that capitalism offers humanity. We urge you to join in with the Socialist Workers campaign and build on the victory in the ballot drive.